DIY Juice Box Christmas Advent Calendar

Make this simple upcycled juice box Christmas advent calendar quickly for a fun and modern take on an old-fashioned tradition. This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. 

This is the first year that I feel like my son will actually start to understand the idea of Christmas and enjoy all of the Christmas activities we’re planning to do. The past two years we’ve really just done a small stocking and presents on Christmas Day, but this year I’m going all out and trying out a handful of new traditions to see which ones fit our family best.

One thing that my parents always did when I was growing up was a Christmas countdown calendar, aka advent calendar, that had little treats in it for us each day leading up until Christmas. I’ve seen them all over Pinterest and even popping up on Instagram (I’m @playpartypin) already, so I figured this is the perfect year to start a new tradition.

Some of the ones I’ve seen around are incredibly cute but man are they time consuming. Everything I do has to be able to be completed in one 2-3 hour nap time or else it’s just not gonna happen. Last year I made a DIY menu board using empty juice boxes and thought I’d try out using juice boxes again because honestly, they’re the perfect little containers, especially for toddler size stuff.

Or candy, or cards with activities that you want to do as a family. There are so many types of countdown calendars out there but this one I made using upcycled juice boxes, Scotch® Expressions Tapes, and Scotch® Brand permanent double-sided tape that I picked up at Walmart in the craft aisle. It’s easy to make, inexpensive, and cute. I kind of love it and think my son will too.

Easy Juice Box Christmas Advent Calendar

Supplies:

• 24 empty juice boxes – I used the 4.23 oz size. You can use larger but you’ll need a foam board
• White 20″ x 36″ foam board
• Green wrapping, construction, or scrapbook paper
• Brown wrapping, construction, or scrapbook paper (I actually used a fake wood paper that’s awesome)
• White card stock
• Electronic cutting machine (I used my Silhouette Cameo) – this is optional, the project can be done without
• Scotch® Expressions Tapes
• Scotch® Brand permanent double-sided tape
• Scissors
• Hot glue gun and glue sticks
• Advent calendar shape cut file (click to download) or PDF shape cutouts 
• Scrapbooking sticker numbers (optional – this is if you are not using an electronic cutter)

Instructions:

Step 1 – First, cut off the tops of all 24 of your juice boxes and pour the juice into a large container (if it hasn’t already been drank). Rinse out and dry the juice boxes before moving onto step 2.

Step 2 – Wrap 21 of the juice boxes with green paper and three with brown or wood paper. Since one side of the juice box will be glued to the foam board, you only need to wrap around three sides. Secure the paper to the juice box with Scotch® Brand permanent double-sided tape. And p.s., you guys, their permanent double-sided tape is my go-to craft supply.

I use it for everything from party printables to holding my tablecloth in place when I’m setting up parties. A definite must have if you well, do anything really. The rest of the Scotch® Create line with its spray adhesive, decorative masking tapes, and more are also in my party and craft supply kit. Scotch® seriously has everything you need to craft or throw a party!

Step 3 – Once all of your juice boxes are wrapped, it’s time to move onto cutting out your shapes to attach to the juice boxes. If you do not have an electronic cutting machine, skip down to step 6. 

First up, choose some of those awesome Scotch® Expressions Tapes and cover a piece of white card stock with them. I used a bunch that I picked up at Walmart specifically for this project as well as a handful of ones that I had in my craft stash leftover from SNAP in April.

I found that four strips of one of the more narrow tapes (not the big wide ones) is about the right size to fit the shapes to cut out. Have fun with this part because this is where the personality of your calendar will come in.

The Scotch® Expressions Tapes are perfect for this because they come in so many fun styles, colors, and textures. You can easily create your own custom designs on the shapes just by doing stripes of a couple of different tape designs on the card stock. Embrace the extremely popular color block trend and just make one strip a different color. Get creative and make it your own.

*If you’re planning to use the glitter Scotch® Expressions Tapes, I recommend doing just those on a shape by themselves rather than layering, or use them with the method described in step 6 below. They don’t cut quite as well when layered with other tapes that aren’t as thick.

Once your card stock is covered, put it on a cutting mat and load into your cutting machine.

Step 4 – If you are using an electronic cutting machine, download this free cut file of my shapes (with number cutouts) and upload it to your electronic cutting program. If you have problems with the cutting file, feel free to email me. Move the shapes onto the screen and into position so they line up with the tape job that you did above. Then cut on the default card stock setting.

Step 5 – Remove your shapes from the cutting mat, making sure to pull out any of the number middles so that you don’t end up with an 8 that looks like a snowman rather than an 8.

If you want to add extra flair to your shapes like I did with a little bit of red on the reindeer’s nose and the gold candle flame, add a strip of Scotch® Expressions Tape in whatever design you’d like to just that portion of the shape then carefully cut around it. It really adds an element of fun with that extra little pop of color. Once that’s done, skip to step 7. 

Step 6 – If you do not have an electric cutting machine, print out this PDF that includes all of the shapes on white card stock. Cut out all of the individual shapes and rather than putting the Scotch® Expressions Tapes onto the full sheet of white card stock (like you would’ve in step 4), put the Scotch® Expressions Tapes directly onto the cut out shapes in whatever pattern you want, like I did for my Valentine’s Day hearts.

Once you’ve added the tape directly to the shape, do a final cut around the edge of the shapes so that you have crisp shape lines.

Add a scrapbook number sticker to each of your final cutout shapes.

Step 7 – Take your final shapes and attach one shape to each of the wrapped juice boxes using Scotch® Brand permanent double-sided tape.

Step 8 – Hot glue the juice boxes to the foam board in the shape of a Christmas tree. Remember that you’re going to want to be able to put things in and get things out of the juice boxes, so make sure to leave enough space between and around the juice boxes.

Step 9 – Step back and enjoy your cute advent calendar then on November 30th fill it with fun prizes, activity slips, and treats for your family.